80 GB Playstation 3 goes on sale

Sony said that the Playstation 3 with the upgraded 80 GB hard drive is available now, while the remaining, price-reduced 60 GB models deliver a healthy sales increase for the company.

The new console sells for the regular $599 (U.S., $659 CND) the company charged for the 60 GB version until a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, the Sony continues to clear out the inventory of its remaining 60 GB models, which apparently are selling like hotcakes – at least when compared to previous PS3 sales. The $100 price reduction to $499 has resulted in a 113% jump in unit sales at the company's top five retailers, Sony said.

Other than previously indicated, the inventory of 60 GB PS3s is expected to be depleted sometime this fall. SCEE president David Reeves told reporters in July that the consoles were expected be gone by the end of July.

The 80 GB hard drives does not come particularly cheap at a premium of $100 over the 60 GB model, but even if buyers are getting a more storage space for essentially the same price of the original PS3, the new model of has business objectives in mind. Sony is heavily promoting its online store and will be offering more than 100 games for download by the end of this year, according to information provided at the recent E3 Media Summit. And those games, of course, have to be stored somewhere.

At the time of this writing the 80 GB PS3 was unavailable through the website of major U.S. retailers. According to Best Buy, the console is expected to be become available between August 13 and 18.

Western Digital's disk maker reports a loss for Q2

Komag, which was recently announced to be acquired by Western Digital for $1 billion, reported a 20% decrease in revenues and a loss for the second quarter of this year.

The disk maker announced revenues of 187.2 million and a loss of $21.0 million, compared to revenues of $233.6 million and a profit of $40.3 million for the second quarter of 2006. The company said that market pressure on unit volumes and average selling prices were the main reason for the decline in revenues, but Komag also noted that a high cost of the initial ramp of perpendicular magnetic recording (PMR) products had a negative impact on the operating result.

The manufacturer said it shipped 25.8 million disks in Q2. 40% of all disks went to Western Digital, 34% to Seagate and 18% to Hitachi GST. 55% of all disks manufactured were disks with a capacity of at least 160 GB, aiming for a use in hard drives for high capacity desktop and multi-platter consumer applications such as personal video recorders (PVRs), digital video recorders (DVRs), high definition television (HDTV), external storage, gaming and other home entertainment devices.

Western Digital expects to complete the acquisition of Komag within the current quarter.

Toshiba releases third-gen HD DVD players

Toshiba today released three new HD DVD players with prices ranging from $300 to $500.

With the new product family, Toshiba continues its strategy to offer a relatively affordable entry-level model, a mainstream product as well as one device that is designed to appeal to enthusiast users.

The HD-A3 has the lowest price of the the new HD DVD players and will sell for a suggested retail price of $300. As its direct predecessor, the device has a maximum output resolution of 1080i, which means there isn't much new other than a slightly revised look of the device.

The mid-level A-30 and the higher-end A-35 both can play videos in up to 1080p at 24 frames per second. The $400 A-30 adds support for HDMI-CEC ("Consumer Electronics Control"), which is included in the HDMI wiring and enable sthe user to control multiple CEC-equipped devices with one remote and allows CEC-enabled devices to control each other without user interaction. The $500 A-35 also offers support for HDMI deep color.

The A-3 and the A-35 are expected to be available in October, while the A-30 will hit retail shelves in September, Toshiba said.

Microsoft cuts price of Xbox 360

Microsoft will reduce the price of the Xbox 360 by up to $50. The Halo 3 edition of the console will sell for $400.

Coinciding with the release of Madden NFL 08 on August 14, Microsoft will drop the price of its game console. The core system without a hard drive will be sold for a suggested retail price of $280, the mainstream version with a 20 GB hard drive, a wireless controller and a headset will be priced at $350 and the black Elite model with a 120 GB hard drive will carry a $450 price tag.

Microsoft also announced the price for Spartan green and gold Halo 3 Xbox 360, which will be available this September: Including a matching wireless controller, a 20 GB hard drive, a headset and a play and charge kit, the console will cost $400.

Sun announces 64-thread processor UltraSparc T2

Sun today announced the UltraSparc T2, previously code-named Niagara 2, successor of the UltraSparc T1. Sun claims that the CPU will be the "world's highest performing microprocessor" that can run an operating system on each of its 64 supported threads.

Sun is not especially known for being modest with its claims, so it is not too surprising to actually hear that Niagara 2 is the world's fastest processor. However, Sun has put some features into the CPU, which could make it very attractive to potential UltraSparc customers.

Servers with the T2 processor will not be available until later this year and not all specifications have been revealed by the company. But we were told that there will be multiple version of the chip, with different numbers of cores and different power consumption specifications. Compared to its predecessor, it will aim for more applications than just servers, with Sun targeting storage devices, networking devices and set-top boxes as well.

On the higher-end, the T2 will integrate eight cores – like the T1 – but support 64 threads, up from 32 in the T1. According to Sun, the T2 is capable of running an operating system of each thread, up to eight per core and up to 64 per CPU. In terms of performance, Sun says that the CPU is about twice as fast as the T1, "without increasing the CPU clock frequency or quadrupling its cache sizes." T2 will include quad memory controllers with an aggregate bandwidth of more than 50 GB/s, according to Sun. The chip will also integrate eight cryptographic acceleration units to process security algorithms without performance penalty, eight floating point units, two virtualizable and multithreaded 10 Gb/s Ethernet ports and eight PCI Express lanes.

Sun also claims that the CPU has a better power efficiency than other, competing microprocessors. For example, the company said that a quad-core Xeon processor consumes about 30 watts per thread, or about 120 watts per processor, according to Sun. The T2 in comparison consumes less than 2 watts per thread, which puts the total power consumption of the processor into the 120 – 130 watt league.

Defcon 2007: The Wi-Fi honeypot from hell

Wireless security researchers are probably reaching for the digital Pepto-Bismol after they slurped down gigabytes of valuable traffic at the recently completed Defcon security convention in Las Vegas. A group of wireless hackers calling themselves the “Church of the WiFi” built a multi-router honeypot which captured gigabytes worth of port scans, man in the middle attacks and even some zero-day techniques.

The honeypot was made from eight Linksys wireless routers – the same kind you would find at the local retail store – along with Linksys switches. The routers were set to cover separate wi-fi channels and fed the data into the switches and out to a computer sniffer.

Security researcher Rick Mellendick built the honeypot as part of a wireless challenge that pitted participants against a heavily fortified web server. By hacking through tiers of security like WEP and WPA, Mellendick hoped that attendees could build up valuable hacking skills.

Mellendick told us that the attackers threw almost every attack in the book against his routers and servers. All the attacks were recorded and more than 60 GB worth of data was sniffed, according to Mellendick.

“It’s a lot of interesting data to go through. There were even attacks that I’ve never seen before,” he said, referring to so-called “zero-day” attacks that have no known defense.

Interestingly enough, even though the Linksys routers are designed to be stacked, Mellendick told us that he still had a lot of problems with heat. One of the routers even overheated into oblivion and had to be replaced.

“They’re getting real hot. Some of them reached 150 degrees,” he said. Thermo-regulated fans were placed on top of the routers to keep things cool. You can see the whole set up in our picture gallery link.

Mellendick hopes to improve his honeypot by adding a one-kilowatt battery pack and shrinking the setup to fit inside of portable cases. “These routers are great for penetration testing. I just need to get them into some Pelican cases,” he said.

Convicted con artist sues Apple over iPhone touch screen

A man recently convicted of healthcare fraud has filed a lawsuit against Apple on behalf of a company called SP Technologies, claiming the touch screen interface on the iPhone infringes on a patent he filed at the turn of the decade.

Peter Boesen says he filed a patent on behalf of SP for a "method and medium for readable keyboard display incapable of user termination."

The August 2000 patent includes claims like a "graphical keyboard on a touch screen display to receive input from a user" and a "graphical keyboard on the touch screen display such that the user cannot move, resize, remove, or close the graphical keyboard through the user interface while the input area remains and requires input."

The lawsuit, which was filed in a federal court in Texas, claims "the use, sale, and offer for sale of [Apple's] iPhone product and system" infringes on the company's patent.

SP also alleges that letters sent to Apple in February went unanswered. "Apple failed to investigate, respond to the letter...or take reasonable steps to avoid infringement," says SP in its lawsuit.

The backgrounds of SP and patent holder Peter Boesen may shed light on the legitimacy of the claim. Information Week reports that SP has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Canon, LG, and Kyocera in the past. Boesen also has a mark in his legal standing.

The Des Moines, Iowa surgeon was reportedly convicted of healthcare fraud in May. He was ordered to pay back more than $900,000 in fraudulent claims and was sentenced to 51 months in federal prison. He is currently free pending an appeal, but could well be incarcerated by the time the iPhone lawsuit hits the docket.

Apple has not yet commented on the lawsuit.

$1.5 billion patent suit overturned in favor of Microsoft

Microsoft is breathing a sigh of relief today, as a federal judge overturned an earlier ruling that would have forced the software giant to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent.

In a dispute over MP3 technologies, Southern California District Court Judge Rudi Brewster said Microsoft was not guilty of infringing patents owned by Alcatel-Lucent, and reversed the decision that Microsoft needed to pay over a billion dollars in damages.

Microsoft was ordered to pay $1.5 billion to Alcatel-Lucent in February as a result of a jury trial. The plaintiff claimed that Microsoft infringed on two of its patents.

Brewster said in one of the cases, the outcome was just wrong and Microsoft did not infringe on the patent, and in the other case the software giant got off on a technicality because Alcatel-Lucent failed to name a co-owner of the patent in the suit. Microsoft partner Fraunhofer, a European research firm, had a stake in the patent so the US court did not have jurisdiction in the case.

Alcatel-Lucent is understandably upset at this turn of events. "This reversal of the judge's own pre-trial and post-trial rulings is shocking and disturbing, especially since -- after a three-week trial and four days of careful deliberation -- the jury unanimously agreed with us, and we believe their decision should stand," said the company in a statement.

IDGNS reports Alcatel-Lucent has appealed this new ruling, which could lead to a change in the company's sought damages.